Thursday, 21 August 2014

Late May I went to Rayher HQ (Lauphein, Germany) to demonstrate Sizzix, and just now I get a chance to blog about it. I had never been there before and it is always so exciting to go to new places and work with different companies that bring Sizzix to crafters all over Europe.

The day started early. Very early. Incredible early. At least for my standards. 5:15am pick up by the taxi. So I had to have Starbucks breakfast at the airport. On the plane I met Kay Halliwell-Sutton from IndigoBlu. We have known each other for years, but never quite had a proper conversation. As then I found out, germans don't speak as much English as I thought so it was nice to actually be with someone who speaks english.

As soon as we got to Rayher we were greeted by beautiful displays. I was in awe of the attention to detail in them. Beautiful displays for beautiful products and projects.

Some of those projects incorporated Quilling, but in a more modern and fresher way.

I quickly set up the table with the beautiful samples from Pete Hughes and Debi Potter. Plus some of mine too.

During the days I was there demonstrating I made some projects like the ones above or bellow.

And tried and tested different things. I loved showing european Sizzix retailers a few of my techniques like the paper patchwork.

Food was served in a tent, very nicely decorated with quite a few options for food.

This group? One of the highlights of the trip. They are from Croatia and with the Slovenians that came on the next day, they soon became some of my favourite people!

And on the way back to the airport, we did some tourism. Not really, just that it was lovely to enjoy the landscape and buildings.

I really loved the landscape and I hope to really do some tourism in that area one day!

Thursday, 14 August 2014

As part of the Sizzix European Blogger team, I got invited among other bloggers to go to Ellison - Sizzix HQ as I call it - in Wrexham. The bloggers were: Bente Fagerberg from Sweden (originally Norway), Elena Roche from Spain, myself (representing the UK!), Karola Witczak from Poland and Elina Stromberg from Finland.

We were hosted by the marketing team, Alison, Fiona and Kayleigh. Of course, I have known them for years as Fiona used to be my boss while I worked full time at Sizzix. It was lovely to see them again and spent some time with all of them.

The place is lovely. It has change a bit since I saw it last. I loved the cantine with big Sizzix banners and decorations.

No matter how many times, I always get goosebumps when I see my work published or, in this case, big print outs. (My projects are the 2nd and 4th from the left).

We had a fun time going into the craft room, a place where Pete creates all his projects. Talent!

Of course, we did a lot of this! all taking photos of the same thing.

Wales is beautiful. I just love the scenery.

We had dinner in a countryside pub. The food was nice, the company perfect!

And a visit to Sizzix HQ would not be complete with a photo with my Christmas Twin, Pete Hughes. He is even nicer person than he is talented, and he has got talent to fill a few football stadiums.

Thursday, 7 August 2014

Today I am sharing a DIY project inspired by the workshops I took on proper Letterpress. I wanted to create my own type so i experimented...

I used the lids of a take away food container to create the shape. I removed all the edges and calculated the thickness that would have to have to work, the thickness of a embossing folder closed. Make sure that if in doubt, you start with a thinner layer than too thick. You can always use thin acetate to create a bit of a shim underneath.

I die cut four ampersand using Tim Holtz WordPlay alphabet die Sizzix. I glue them all together with a strong adhesive. Then I sanded the top (with is the mirror side) to create a better printing surface than shiny plastic. To ink it up I used Brilliance pads which are beautiful pearlescent ink that dry quickly on paper but stay wet on plastic.

I secured the ampersand with low tack tape, and proceed to print it as if it were an embossing folder through the Big Shot. On the right you can see the effect. Lovely debossed effect.

On the back, its pretty flat but with some bruising which is normal for deep impressed Lettepress.

This step I recommend do it before the letterpress one, but as I do things on the go without much planning, I did it after which meant that the letterpress impress effect was lost a but by die cutting the label.

Once I had it die cut I stamp the other two messages (Sister / Friend).

And here it is, finished! i hope you enjoyed it and give it a try. Remember, always try with thinner plastics, as you always add more but it is difficult to remove any layers!

I am a professional freelance paper crafter and graphic designer living and working in the UK for the last ten years. I am one of the faces demonstrating Tonic Studios on Hochanda. I have designed stamps and die cutting products for several craft companies.

You can find them in craft shops all over the country including:

The clear stamp sets that I have designed are made and distributed to craft shops around the country by Personal Impressions. I have direct links to some internet and brick and mortar shops that stock the whole range at the bottom of this column.

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